Megan Hoeppner
Welcome to Magazine Monday! As a friend of the Paper Crafts family (former PC editor), I’m delighted to be guest blogging here today. My name is Megan Hoeppner and I’m the creative editor for Creating Keepsakes magazine.
In this month of goal setting, I’m here to share an idea inspired by “Taking Inventory,” an organization idea I featured in my January “Tips & Tricks” column. It’s an easy-to-use tracking system to help you remember the supplies you have, using the Inventory Tracking Sheets below. In this example, I transformed the sheet for my supply of pink and red inkpads.
Download your own free tracking sheets here.
Inspired by these sheets, I want to share a few additional ways to keep track of the product manufacturers on your supplies, so you can toss the packaging but remember all the information you need. So often we sort our goodies by color or type, which can complicate replacing and/or sourcing products for projects (such as when you submit your work to Paper Crafts and CK, of course). Here are a few easy tricks for remembering where your product delights came from, long after you’ve tossed the packaging.
Images
Thanks to digital cameras, snapping pictures is free and easy. Create a product file on your computer and take a pic of your product packages before you discard/recycle them. If you want to take this idea a step further, print small pics of these images and write the product info on the image. Here’s how I created an inventory card for photos of some of my accents before I separated them.
Inventory card for accents
Patterned Paper
If, like me, you file patterned paper by color and occasionally find yourself wanting to reunite a collection, you’ll like this simple solution. Punch out small samples from the collection sheet (the one that comes in the paper pack) and adhere them to a note card with the collection name and the manufacturer.
Inventory card for paper
Stamps (Clear and Rubber)
Remember which images came together in a stamp set by visiting the company web site and saving the image of each stamp set you own. Then write or type the name of the set and company on a card with the images. Don’t forget the name of the stamp set, the item number (if you want to get that specific) and the company name. This way you can keep track of your original sets, even if they get divided up over time or due to your unique filing system.
Inventory card for stamps
Ribbon
Ribbon scraps oftentimes end up in jars, which can make sourcing them a challenge. Remember who made your favorite trims with cards containing small scraps of the ribbons.
Inventory card for ribbon
With the new year upon us, I hope these tips get you off to an organized start. Speaking of organized, I’m always on the lookout for fresh organization ideas to feature in my “Tips & Tricks” column. I’d love to read your ideas in the comments section of this blog. I know you Paper Crafts peeps are a super creative, organized lot, so I’m going to take advantage of this opportunity while I’m here visiting. Thanks for letting me stop by!
Cheers!
Megan Hoeppner
